Got a Gallery in the Wild

If I had to choose the most difficult enemy among all those I had fought bloody battles against so far, I would undoubtedly choose the saber-toothed tiger.

The ferocity inherent to tigers.

Its terrifying size.

And that absurd regenerative ability.

If I had not received Sloth’s timely help back then, I would have died again and again.

Thanks to that adversity, I achieved tremendous growth.

If it had not been for the saber-toothed tiger, I would never have been able to defeat the Guardian.

After that, I encountered all kinds of strange creatures, but I was never defeated.

Even when a beast appeared that seemed capable of defeating me, I fled immediately instead of fighting.

Fwoosh!

HeavenlyDemon’s sword, wrapped in an aura that rippled like flames.

I stared in shock at the gorilla leader, who was holding that sword using only his fingers.

Even though I had attacked with all my strength, the gorilla leader had caught it with complete ease.

If he had grabbed it with his entire hand, I could still understand it.

But it was only his fingers.

The physical strength I gained after eating eel.

The strength acquired from practicing the internal circulation method.

Even adding all of that together, I had been stopped by just three fingers.

“Grrgh……”

And I could not even pull it back.

No matter how much strength I used, the sword did not move even a millimeter.

While I struggled desperately, the gorilla leader maintained a calm expression.

It was a silent pressure that clearly conveyed just how great the difference between us was.

Now I understood why he had so confidently said he would take one of my arms.

Tap.

“Uagh!”

Just as I was pulling on the sword with all my strength, the gorilla leader released his grip.

The recoil almost made me fall over in a humiliating manner.

I barely managed to regain my balance and faced him once more.

The bastard even had his arms crossed over his enormous chest.

“Bukkeou.”

I did not have time to enter the gallery in a situation like this.

But one thing was certain.

He was looking down on me.

The moment I realized that, I decided to attack more cautiously.

“Kyuu! Kyuu!”

Then Wonmo, who had remained still until now, suddenly rushed forward.

It seemed he had classified the gorilla leader as an enemy.

Just as I was about to tell him to back off, someone intervened before I could.

Tap.

“Kyuu?”

“……”

It was Sloth, who had gotten off my back at some point.

Sloth stepped in front of Wonmo and gestured for him to retreat.

At first, Wonmo looked confused, but then he turned his head toward me.

“Wonmo, listen to Sloth.”

“Kyuuu……!”

Only then did he back away.

In fact, Sloth practically pushed him all the way to the cave.

After that, Sloth did not climb back onto my back and merely observed from a distance.

It would probably be easier for him to intervene from there than while riding on me.

‘Looks like he understood the situation.’

The gorilla leader’s personal guards also remained still, watching.

It was a duel between the gorilla leader and me.

It seemed that Sloth understood that meaning as well.

Or perhaps, as always, he was waiting to intervene only if I was in danger.

I think I could trust him a little.

I tightened my grip on my sword and shield while fixing my gaze on the gorilla leader.

He remained motionless, arms crossed.

He did not even have a bridge on his nose, yet he overflowed with confidence.

“Hmph!”

Then I would make him pay the price for his overconfidence.

I pushed off with my legs and launched a thrust.

An attack executed without warning.

And furthermore, it was not a slash but a thrust.

An attack that fully exploited the sharpness characteristic of HeavenlyDemon’s sword.

If he chose to block it as before, he would suffer a serious wound.

Whoosh!

My sword pierced directly toward the gorilla leader’s abdomen.

Or at least, that was how it appeared.

‘What……?’

But the sensation was strange.

I was sure I had pierced him, yet it did not feel that way.

It was like stabbing empty air.

The contradiction between what I saw and what I felt was far too strange.

Shaaa—

Shortly after that thought crossed my mind, the gorilla leader’s body changed.

It distorted like a mirage.

And then disappeared.

Startled, I hastily withdrew my sword and looked around.

‘Where is he……?’

Shiver!

A chilling sensation ran down the back of my head.

I had only been living in the Forest of Four Seasons for two weeks, but I had already learned something.

Never ignore a bad feeling.

Never ignore your instincts.

And this time, I chose to trust them.

Slash!

I spun around and unleashed a horizontal slash.

The flaming aura surged violently.

“Hm.”

When I looked behind me, I saw the gorilla leader.

Unlike before, his arms were no longer crossed.

It seemed he had tried to catch me off guard and failed.

I did not waste the opportunity.

After all, he was still underestimating me.

“Haaah!”

I slashed, thrust, and slashed again and again.

Even the gorilla leader seemed surprised by my momentum.

He did not counterattack.

He only dodged.

Slash!

Again.

I was certain I had hit him, but I felt nothing.

At the same time, the gorilla leader’s figure once again became faint like a mirage.

What kind of technique was that?

Could Sloth use something like that too?

I quickly turned my body around.

And without forgetting to prepare for any possibility, I unleashed another slash.

Slash!

The gorilla was not there.

There was only empty air.

And at that very moment, I felt a sharp pain at the back of my neck.

He had caught me.

But I could not simply turn around again to attack.

Unless my waist could rotate three hundred and sixty degrees, it was impossible.

So I chose the second-best option.

‘I’ve got to block it with my shield!’

I straightened my waist and raised my shield.

Fortunately, I had made the right decision.

The gorilla leader’s fist was coming directly toward my shield.

Just how powerful would that fist be?

After all, it belonged to the same monster that had effortlessly stopped my sword.

I had even considered the possibility of being blown backward and prepared myself to cushion the fall.

Tap.

But all of those concerns turned out to be unnecessary.

The gorilla leader’s attack was absurdly simple.

I felt no impact on the shield.

Only the sensation that something had touched it.

The gorilla leader had simply placed his fist against my shield.

That was all.

Confused, I looked up into his eyes.

The gorilla leader’s expression remained completely calm.

‘Why?’

Before that doubt could fully settle.

Thump!

A strange sensation traveled through the shield.

Crack!

A sound similar to a branch snapping reached my ears.

At the same time, the shield began to lower slowly. Even though I was holding it firmly, it was falling without any strength at all.

Confused, I looked down at the shield.

And then I understood why it had dropped.

It wasn’t that it had moved against my will.

Dangle— Dangle—

It was that my arm had broken and could no longer obey my commands.

I stared blankly at the arm hanging uselessly.

But only for a moment.

The pain that adrenaline had barely managed to suppress hit me all at once.

“Aaaaaaaaargh!!!”

The pain of a broken bone surpasses all imagination.

Hadn’t I already suffered indescribably just yesterday when my ribs were broken?

I even dropped my sword while clutching my dangling arm.

It felt as if needles were being driven directly into my brain over and over again.

‘H-how? He only placed his fist against the shield…!’

Both that mirage-like body that dispersed into thin air and that attack from a moment ago.

Everything was beyond my comprehension.

The gorilla leader’s abilities completely surpassed my common sense.

“Ghh… Haa…”

“……”

While I gritted my teeth to endure the pain, the gorilla leader watched me in silence.

His expression seemed to ask.

“Are you going to keep going?”

I answered with actions.

Swoosh—

Picking up HeavenlyDemon’s sword from the ground.

One arm was broken.

But the other was still intact.

I concentrated all the mana I had left into the sword.

Wooooong—

Had it instinctively sensed danger?

The aura that had previously swayed like flames began to condense little by little.

I couldn’t die here.

My desire to survive pushed my concentration to its limit.

And just as that fire-like aura began to take shape.

The gorilla leader moved.

At first, it only looked as if he had bent his knees slightly.

I reacted the moment I saw that movement, but.

Whoosh!

The gorilla leader appeared in front of me before I could even process it.

A speed comparable to Sloth’s.

Or perhaps even greater.

I slowly raised my eyes to the gorilla leader, who stood upright on two legs.

Had I ever been overwhelmed like this before?

It was a pressure capable of erasing even the slightest trace of fighting spirit.

Swoosh—

The gorilla leader drew his right arm back.

It did not look like a punch.

It was a palm strike.

A long-range strike.

If I took that attack head-on, I would die.

I had to move.

I had to do something.

But perhaps because I had already been completely dominated, my legs would not respond.

It was similar to when I faced the saber-toothed tiger.

And at the same time, different.

‘I’m not dying like this…!’

I struggled desperately.

I even bit my tongue trying to force my body to move.

Fortunately, the effort paid off.

I barely managed to move my legs.

Now all that remained were my arms.

Within that illusion where time seemed to move slowly, I tried to move them as well.

Whoooosh!

The problem was that this slowed-down instant applied to the gorilla leader too.

The arm he had drawn back shot forward like a bullet.

True to a gorilla, that enormous hand completely filled my field of vision.

Just as I resigned myself to death.

Boom!!!

The gorilla leader’s palm brushed past my face.

The explosion of air made my ears ring and sent my hair whipping wildly.

Craaaash!!!

The ear I still had left allowed me to imagine what had happened behind me.

It wasn’t simply something collapsing.

It was the sound of total destruction.

I prayed that the cave wasn’t directly behind me.

“……”

“……”

I remained completely motionless.

Only my eyes could move.

With a trembling gaze, I slowly turned my eyes toward the gorilla leader.

For some reason.

He was smiling.

Tap—

The gorilla leader lowered the hand that had passed beside my face.

He placed it on my shoulder.

Despite being such a simple gesture, it felt incredibly heavy.

Tap. Tap.

The gorilla leader patted my shoulder.

As if trying to reassure me.

It was true that he had said he would take one of my arms.

But he had never said he would take my life.

Then he removed his hand from my shoulder and spoke in the language of Zhongyuan.

“Wai wonni.”

Welcome to the Forest of Four Seasons.

“Sinsho.”

Novice.

I didn’t know why, but I felt that was what he meant.

“Jjeoba.”

The gorilla leader turned around and gave an order to his personal guards.

The guards armed with spears gave me one last look before following him.

I remained rooted to the spot until the gorilla leader and his group had completely disappeared.

“…Huu.”

Only after they were gone was I able to exhale.

I didn’t even pay attention to the broken arm hanging uselessly at my side.

Or rather, I couldn’t.

It felt like my heart was going to burst from how hard it was beating.

It was as if someone were crushing my body with an invisible force.

If the saber-toothed tiger represented instinctive fear.

The gorilla leader conveyed something artificial.

‘Who the hell…?’

At the same time, I felt immense curiosity toward the person who had taught the gorilla leader martial arts.

What kind of master could turn a gorilla into someone so powerful?

I slowly organized my thoughts and regained my composure.

Right now, there was something more important.

Healing my broken arm.

If I left it like this, I could suffer serious aftereffects.

‘Will an elixir heal this…?’

Just as I was trying to keep the broken arm from shifting into a bad position, I turned my head behind me.

And froze.

The gorilla leader had launched that palm strike right beside my face.

I had also clearly heard something being destroyed.

I had assumed he had simply knocked down a few trees.

But reality far exceeded that expectation.

Because a path had appeared.

A place that had previously been completely covered by dense trees.

Yet with a single palm strike from the gorilla leader, the trees had either collapsed or been uprooted.

An unexpected road had opened up.

And that left my mind blank.

‘…Not even Sun Wukong would be able to do something like this.’

Though now that I thought about it, Sun Wukong was a monkey with a tail, not a gorilla.

What did it matter?

‘Can I really survive here?’

My resolve had cracked a little.

That much was undeniable.